Tufton Beamish, Baron Chelwood

Tufton Victor Hamilton Beamish, Baron Chelwood (27 January 19176 April 1989) was a British Army officer and Conservative Member of Parliament for Lewes for 29 years (1945–1974), and an author.

During the Second World War, he served in France, Belgium (1940), Malaya (1942), India and Burma (1942–43), North Africa and Italy (1943–44). In 1940 he was awarded the Military Cross; was knighted in 1961 and upon his retirement from the House of Commons was created a life peer as Baron Chelwood, of Lewes in the County of East Sussex on 7 May 1974.

Early life and family Beamish was born in Dunfermline in 1917. His father was Tufton P. H. Beamish, who served in the Royal Navy until 1922 when he retired with the rank of captain. He had followed his career in the navy by entering politics and served as the member of Parliament for Lewes from 1924 until 1931 and again from 1936 until 1945, when his son succeeded him. and by two daughters from his first marriage.

One of his daughters, Claudia Hamilton Beamish, was elected as a Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament for South of Scotland in 2011.

Military career Beamish was educated at Stowe School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers in 1937. In 1938 Beamish served in Cairo and Palestine (presumably during the Arab revolt in Palestine) and developed a lifelong interest in the Arab people of the region. After the outbreak of World War II, he was transferred to France as a company commander with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). He was wounded on the retreat to Dunkirk and managed to secure his evacuation. Beamish next worked as an intelligence officer in India before being transferred to the Eighth Army in North Africa in 1943, taking part in the invasion of Italy later that year. He left the army in 1945 with the rank of captain.

Books Beamish wrote a number of political and historical non-fiction books, reflecting his interests in Eastern Europe under communism, and his constituency of Lewes. These include: Must Night Fall? (1950) Battle Royal: a new account of Simon de Montfort's struggle against King Henry III (1965), covering the Battle of Lewes. Half Marx (1970) The Kremlin's Dilemma: the struggle for human rights in Eastern Europe (1979)

He also wrote forewords to several books, including: The Battle of Lewes, 1264: its place in English history (1964), a book of essays by Sir Maurice Powicke, R.F. Treharne [and] Charles H. Lemmon to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Lewes. The Defenders: a history of the British volunteer (1968), by Geoffrey Cousins.

Honours and arms

Knight Bachelor - 1961 Military Cross - 20 December 1940 Mentioned in Despatches - 19 July 1945 Golden Cross of Merit - 1944 Polonia Restituta (Poland) Commander, Order of the Phoenix (Greece) - 1949 Order of the Cedar (Lebanon) - 1969 Honorary Freeman, Lewes - 1970